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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Life under occupation Home page  back Print  Send To friend Witness to the occupation in the South Hebron Hills Rosamond Robertson Mondoweiss 29.1.12 ‘A Country is Not Just What it Does-it is Also About What it Tolerates’. - Kurt Tucholsk. Words at the entrance of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial museum. All day it rained and rained relentlessly, turning to stinging hail at the close of the grey day. And all I could do was pray. Pray that the bulldozer had not come that day to Rahid’s house, raizing it to the ground putting him, his wife and four young children aged seven years to a toddler, out onto the now sodden fields. There is a world of difference between receiving an alert on my mobile: ‘One structure demolished’ and being in a room with a desperate family facing a demolition in two days’ time. A world of difference between seeing a house due for demolition as a dot on a map and walking round the neighbourhood, drinking tea in that home and observing the desperate strained face of the father as his young children, unaware of any impending disaster clamber onto his lap and into his arms. Last Saturday we drove through the Hebron hills, passing through Al Fawwar refugee camp, past ruined buildings, remnants of the Jordanian occupation of sixty four years ago, to the small hamlet of Rabud. In the cold drizzle eight home owners faced with imminent demolition pressed round us anxious for messages of hope from Nasser Nawaja, a key local Palestinian and we two internationals. Nasser is supporting threatened communities such as this with the help of Israeli and Palestinian lawyers, trying to challenge the demolitions in the courts. The houses affected would cause 150 people to be made homeless, 80 of these being children. I am living here in the occupied West Bank for three months with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme, EAPPI. This international programme was initiated by the World Council of Churches in response to the cry for support by the heads of many Palestinian churches. Our team of four from Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Scotland live in the heart of this unusual suburb of Yatta, a large town of pale stone houses perched on a hill, the ‘county town’ equivalent of the south Hebron hills. Here former farmers and herders appear to have brought their livestock with them judging by the bleat of lambs, the crowing cocks and cackling geese hidden away near our house in pens and sheds and yesterday to our great surprise came across a camel. But what are we doing here and why? The south Hebron hills (the area where Mary, mother of Jesus rushed to tell her news to cousin Elizabeth) is one of the poorest communities in the West Bank and also one of the most vulnerable. The families of herders living in tent hamlets and caves are cruelly impacted by the Israeli government’s policy of house demolition and displacement. It is the focus of numerous humanitarian agencies trying to sustain and protect these desperately insecure and targeted people, 55% received food aid compared to 22% in the rest of the West Bank. Rabud and other villages targeted for demolition are situated in ‘Area C’, over 60% of the West Bank, under full Israeli military control as part of the Oslo agreement. ‘For those Palestinians unfortunate enough to live in “Area C”‘ writes Rabbi Barry Leff of Rabbis for Human Rights, ‘.. the Israeli government continues to pursue policies aimed at increasing the number of Jews in Area C and driving out as many Palestinian as possible, with bureaucratic processes that are reminiscent of a Franz Kafka novel.’ It is just this partial and inconsistent application of law and planning policy that the Rabud families described to us. Tawfeg Sleiman recalls how his father moved to a cave with his family as a refugee in 1948. Tawfeg went on “I bought land here , I worked hard in Israel to get money so I could buy land. Now the Palestinians and Israelis speak peace but they want to damage my house. Where do I move to? I have all the documents for the land-how can they say it is state land?” He showed us documents some going back over many years. “I was here before the settlement. I tried to build on the other side of the house –the High Court asked for papers-they went back to Ottoman times-but the government said that this is Area C -why? Show me the law”. Later we walked down a country road with houses on either side- one side Area B the other Area C a seemingly arbitrary decision with no logic except, in the words of UN OCHA Report 2011, ‘that while the development of their (Palestinian) communities has been restricted in the past 10 years, adjacent Israeli settlements have continued to develop in contravention of international law’ leading to ‘a state of pervasive insecurity and instability’ as witnessed during my visit. The magnificent buildings of the Otni’el settlement towered above us on the hilltop as we walked past the lone almond tree in blossom and the meagre gardens of Rabud. The Israeli pressure group Regavim, describes itself as ‘an apolitical NGO’ whose purpose is ‘to protect the nation’s lands and assets.’ In June 2011 it inquired of the Israeli Justice Ministry about ‘the failure to enforce building laws in Area C of the West Bank. ’ In response, the State Attorney’s Office has promised to respond by August 2012 to all pending appeals by Palestinians against demolition orders for structures built without permits. In 1993, The Oslo Agreement, which designated Areas A, B, and C, called for a five-year transition period in which Israeli forces would withdraw from the occupied territories. In these areas, Israel has instituted building permit requirements (permits that are almost impossible to obtain) so that Palestinians building on their own land in Area C are now said to be building illegally and face demolition. Given the illegality of so much of the Israeli government’s actions in the West Bank, might it be time that the international community added such a question and time scale to an international agenda- in the UN for instance? How and why the Israeli government is allowed to disregard with impunity international humanitarian law, UN conventions and the structures put in place to move towards peace? Sanctions against Iran for such behaviour are being called for. There have been some recent positive statements from both Nick Clegg and the European Union on just these matters. Within Israeli society too there is a growing challenge from a significant number of organisations, including the aptly named Breaking the Silence, concerned not just with what the country is doing but also with what it seems content to tolerate. rh Links to the latest articles in this section Occupation forces injure mourners following funeral of slain infant Mohammad Tamimi Nabi Saleh village assaulted - toddler shot in the head died in hospital Palestinians in the snow: thrown from home into the snow, throw snowballs and get arrested